By William Madouk
Frustrated teachers in Northern Bahr El Ghazal state are infuriated after discovering their names missing on the pay sheet.
The teachers who were protesting against reduction in their salaries accuse the state Ministry of Education and Instruction for orchestrating the mischief.
A teacher, Deng, not real name, told this outlet that his name and that of other colleagues who protested earlier salary cut, were removed from the pay sheet, although they are teaching.
“They (the NBG Ministry of Education) removed us because we addressed the media on salary slashes,” said Deng.
“They started releasing the salaries on Tuesday evening at the Ministry of Education headquarters, and when we went there, we were surprised by the removal of our names (all the teachers who were complaining),” he explained.
Mr. Deng stated that they don’t know why their names were removed and hinted that it could be because teachers aired out their grievances to the media.
Besides, the teacher cited that about 56 teachers in Aweil municipality were affected, saying that in the meantime, they would do assessments and share the exact number of affected teachers in all counties.
According to him, the state education department suspected that dissenting tutors were becoming politicians and were against the state government for demanding their rights via different media outlets.
He wondered why calling for their rights became political when, indeed, they received less compared to their colleagues in other states.
However, the State Minister of Education, Santino Bol Akok rubbished the claim that teachers were on strike.
Addressing the media at Maluil Akong Primary School in Aweil, on Friday, last week, the minister said learning was going on well.
“Sometimes there is this speculation that teachers are striking; there is nothing of that kind because teachers are now in classes; they are teaching,” he said.
“You cannot just call yourself a teacher unless you report to your duty station. As the Ministry of General Education and State Government, we don’t have any teachers on strike; most of the schools are having classes,” he added.
According to Bol, teachers started receiving salaries from the committee, which will only pay genuine teachers.
“The team is here to verify and make sure that whoever is getting money is a real teacher with his name correct and his working ID. So, with the money, they started getting their money yesterday, today, and even some days to come,” he noted.